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Oink, Oink! Arlington Feeds from Congressional Pork-Barrel

Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) released their 2005 Congressional Pig Book earlier this week. According to the CAGW press release, the "little book" is "a compendium of the pork-barrel projects in the federal budget," which this year amounted to $27.3 billion for 13,997 projects. Pork projects, or 'earmarks' as they are sometimes referred to, allow members of Congress to bypass the normal budget process. Seven projects totaling a little over $2 million are 'earmarked' for Arlington from the fiscal 2005 federal budget:

You can access all 13,997 projects or 'earmarks' at their searchable database (keyword = Arlington).

To repeat the Voltaire quote we used yesterday, " . . . the art of government consists in taking as much money as possible from one class of citizens to give to the other." Or as the CAGW noted in their press release, "The true legacy of pork is its contribution to the $7.8 trillion national debt." If you really want to confuse your Congressional representatives, ask where in the Constution they find the authority to make such 'earmarked' appropriations.